Democratic Deficit, Participation and the WTO

This chapter will analyze arguments that the World Trade Organization (WTO) suffers from a 'democratic deficit', which casts doubt on the legitimacy and desirability of its rules and policies. First this chapter outlines teh two strands of this accusation of 'democratic deficit'. That is: 1. That the WTO unduly undermines the regulatory capacity fo States, and 2. That democratic deficiencies exist within WTO internal processes, such as negotiations and dispute settlements. Secondly, I examine the relevance to this issue of international human rights law, particularly the right of political participation in Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966. Thirdly, many of the alleged democratic deficits of and within the WTO afflict other international regimes. In this regard, a comparison between the WTO regime and the international human rights regime is undertaken in order to identify whether democratic deficiencies within the WTO are of greater concern than the general democratic deficiencies that exist at the international level of governance. Fourthly, potential limits to the WTO's mandate, which might strike a more appropriate balance between national regulatory powers and international rules in light of democratic deficiencies in WTO internal processes, are discussed. The fifth section concludes this chapter